Optimizing your mobile landing page

Landing pages are crucial for every piece of contact.  In this blog I would like to focus on landing pages which are used for mobile app downloads. 

"40% turn to a competitor after a bad mobile experience."
~ Compuware, "What Users Want from Mobile", 2011

Many companies do not use or have not optimized their mobile landing page yet. Many opportunities do exist to boost conversion through the landing page and provide a better user experience.

Specialized companies like Lander, Themeforest or Instapage can help you easily create and optimize your mobile landing page. These companies can perform A/B split testing, offer responsive templates, a nd an easy to use builder. They can either charge you a monthly fee per landing page or they charge you a fixed fee per landingpage and a variable fee based on the number of visitors. 

The blog of Seachenginewatch provides 10 tips to help you optimize your mobile landing page.
Many mobile startups are resource constraint. Using these tools and adhering to the best practices can easily increase conversion. The creation and optimization of a mobile landing page is definitely a quick win!  

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2188662/Mobile-Landing-Page-Optimization-10-Best-Practices-for-Success

1. Be Accessible

Ensure your content is available and visible for mobile devices. Flash, frames, PNG-24 images, and numerous plug-ins are not accessible for mobile.

2. Be Fast

Your mobile pages should be lightweight (less than 20 KB total) and minimally load in under 5 seconds.

3. Be Orderly

For smartphones, present a single-column layout with the priority content at the top. Mobile users are goal-oriented versus the more benefit-oriented desktop users, so always feature call-to-action task completion content (e.g., click-to-call, find a store) "above the fold" or within the top 100 pixels for smartphones.
If your call-to-action (CTA) is potentially lower on the screen, be sure to present a teaser like "scroll down for offer" to retain engagement.

4. Be Brief

Depending upon the verbosity of your traditional landing page, there's a good chance you'll need to cut copy in half for mobile optimization.
Every single word should add value or get cut.

5. Be Legible

Users should be able to read the page without zooming. The minimum font-size should ideally be about 16 pixels, the 100% default for browsers.

6. Be Call-Friendly

The top mobile user action for both SEO and PPC is making a phone call, so ensure your full phone number is visible at the top of the page.

7. Be Thumb-Friendly

Small, compact content is challenging to click for mobile. Don't give users a fat-finger weight complex! All actionable targets should be clickable without zooming.

8. Be Local

A mobile user's geolocation can typically be determined within 5 to 20 miles based on their IP address without the user explicitly disclosing their location. Based on an IP address (a.k.a. geoIP), several details of a web user's location can be calculated – country, region (state/province), ZIP code, metro area (e.g., Twin Cities), city, latitude, longitude, area code, weather station, and more. Yup. This is a gold mine for personalizing content to convert!

9. Be Form-Simple

Mobile landing page forms should be extremely short. Target seven or less fields (one to three is ideal) anticipating each additional field to potentially reduce conversion by 50 percent. Never include non-required fields.

10. Be Action-Compelling

The purpose of the page should be obvious, compelling and readily visible as an action.